Lahey names new Legislature committee chairmen

GOSHEN — True to his word, Orange County Legislature Chairman Bill Lahey has given Democratic colleagues their first taste of power by naming four to lead committees.

Chris McKenna

GOSHEN — True to his word, Orange County Legislature Chairman Bill Lahey has given Democratic colleagues their first taste of power by naming four to lead committees.

Reinstalled as chairman last month through a deal between the two major parties, Lahey has just released 2008 committee assignments, placing for the first time an equal number of Republicans and Democrats in charge of the Legislature's eight committees.

The winners tended to be those with seniority, such as Republicans Bernard Winstanley and Alan Seidman and Democrats Tony Marino and Harvey Burger. Among those denied committee chairmanships were Independence Party convert Michael Amo — who threw the two major parties into a 10-10 tie in November by leaving the GOP — and the two lawmakers who sought to deny Amo swing-vote power: Frank Fornario, R-Blooming Grove, and Roxanne Donnery, D-Highland Falls. In the reshuffling of assignments, Fornario lost his spot as chairman of the Physical Services Committee, and Amo was replaced as Human Services Committee chairman. Fornario and Donnery angered their colleagues in November by jumping out front with a proposal to share power so that Amo — now a free agent in an otherwise evenly divided chamber — wouldn't control the selection of the Legislature chairman.